[Archport] Saving our sunken treasures: meeting on underwater cultural heritage

["Alexandre Monteiro" <alexandre.monteiro@gmail.com>]

http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=41257&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html


Saving our sunken treasures: meeting on underwater cultural heritage

Six years after its adoption by UNESCO in November 2001, the
Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage will
be the theme of an information meeting on 23 November at Organization
Headquarters. The event will bring together site managers and experts
in underwater archaeology from all over the world to review current
issues in this emerging discipline.
What are the latest discoveries in underwater heritage? What is
happening with plans for underwater museums? What are the most recent
developments in underwater archaeology? To answer these questions, 12
internationally renowned archaeologists are invited to the meeting,
among them Ao Jie (China) who participated in the exploration of the
Nanhai-1 shipwreck in Guangdong province, on the southern coast of
China.

The ship, which went down during the Song dynasty (960-1279) in the
Pearl River, at the departure point of the marine "Silk Road", was
excavated recently and will be exhibited in an aquarium museum
scheduled for completion before December 2007. Ao Jie also helped
investigate the Bailehang site, today at the bottom of the artificial
lake of the Three Gorges Reservoir. The oldest known hydrological
inscriptions are found there, recording 1200 years of water level
variations. An underwater museum will soon open to allow access to
this now-submerged site.

Another guest is Dr Alok Tripoathi (India), head archeologist of the
Underwater Archaeology Wing of the Archaeological Survey of India. He
participated notably in the explorations of Lakshadsweep, a peninsula
on India's southwestern coast, where ruins of the sunken city of
Dwarka and the legendary Mahabalipuram temples were recently
discovered.

Aiming to preserve submerged cultural property in situ and prevent
looting by treasure hunters, the Convention on the Protection of the
Underwater Cultural Heritage also promotes public access to this
cultural heritage and encourages archaeological research. It does not
arbitrate ownership issues nor call into question the sovereign rights
of states. The Convention will enter into force three months after
being ratified by 20 countries; it already has 16 States Parties.

A Press Conference will be held the day before the meeting, on 22
November at 11 a.m., with the archaeologists and Françoise Rivière,
UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture. (UNESCO, 1 rue
Miollis, 75015 Paris, Room XIV, level -2). Simultaneous interpretation
in English and French will be provided.